A Thousand Ships

$ 10.00

10 Songs | MR031 | Release Date 2007

On the last Boondogs album, the Indy Grotto songs were the killers - achy, dreamy, gauzy pieces of dreampop. On the Little Rock band's new A Thousand Ships, it's Grotto's husband, Jason Weinheimer, who seems to have a more direct line to the listener's central nervous system.

We say this with a big caveat. Grotto and Weinheimer share songwriting credit on seven of the 10 songs on the CD, but it is generally understood that the songs Weinheimer sings are his own compositions and vice versa for his wife. But we imagine that the Boondogs partnership means just that - two people bringing music to life.

"Things You'll Regret" is the opening track for A Thousand Ships, and you'll be forgiven if you don't move on to the others right away. With its outsize slide guitar hook and its infectious, acousticguitar based beat, it almost immediately jumps to the top of our long list of favorite Boondogs songs ever. The lyric "Like Helen of Troy you leave me no choice/ And I will wage war for the things I'll regret" has a particularly strong echo right now.

The best Grotto song is "Hold On," which has a lovely late-night lounge feel. Grotto and Weinheimer just had their second child, and so it's no surprise to see them recycle two pieces ("Lonely" and "I Want It All") from an earlier, now out-of-print EP. Weinheimer offers a more muscular and more engaging take on "I Want It All" here. There's also "Kill Switch," a searing cover of a T-Bone Burnett tune.

The other thing to note is the musical pairing of Weinheimer and guitarist Charles Wyrick. Wyrick stars on A Thousand Ships as well as on Jim Mize's excellent Release It to the Sky, which had several songs produced by Weinheimer. It also must be noted that A Thousand Ships is a great package with a beautiful illustrated cover by Evelyn De Morgan and an inside illustration.